‘What I don’t understand is why she wasn’t in the birth register in the first place,’ the king grumbled to the queen the very next morning. ‘There’s no trace of the girl. It’s as though someone has wiped away any record of her existence.’

‘Her father says the girl’s mother brought her to the palace to register her when she was born,’ the queen said, taking her seat at the long golden table in the royal dining room, ‘but I don’t remember it at all.’

The king nodded. ‘The oddest thing is, there’s no record of the mother either.’

‘Good morning, Father. Good morning, Mother,’ Joderick sang as he arrived for his breakfast. He took his seat at the opposite end of the very long table and grinned a toothy grin. ‘How are you both this morning?’

‘Hungry,’ his father replied.

‘Famished,’ his mother added.

‘Excellent,’ Joderick said. ‘What an exciting day.’

The king looked at the queen and the queen looked at the king while Joderick filled his plate. This Cinders girl might not have been their first choice for a daughter-in-law, but their son was happy and soon he would be married, which meant the fairies couldn’t steal him away.

And that was all that mattered.

Wasn’t it?